Self healing andon system and method

• US 8,620,776 B1
• Filed: 06/04/2012
• Issued: 12/31/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Mishra, Devesh, Young, Eric C., Shah, Sameer Vinod, Tien, Timothy Jesse, Zhao, Jun
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender, Ryan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Haider, Fawaad
• Application Number:
  US13/487,437
• Time in Patent Office: 575 Days
• Field of Search: 705/28
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments of a self healing andon system. One embodiment of the present disclosure includes a system comprising at least one server. The system further includes logic executed on the at least one server that retrieves a defect history associated with a vendor and at least one product from an inbound shipment from a memory. The at least one product is stocked in a materials handling facility, and the defect history is associated with a specified time period. The at least one server extracts at least one inventory defect from the defect history in a computer system and calculates an inventory defect rate. The at least one server imposes remedial measures if the inventory defect rate exceeds a specified threshold of the inventory defect rate.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

retrieving, by at least one computing device, a defect history associated with a vendor and at least one product from an inbound shipment from a memory, the at least one product to be stocked in a materials handling facility, the defect history being associated with a specified time period;

extracting, by the at least one computing device, at least one inventory defect from the defect history in the at least one computing device;

calculating, by the at least one computing device, an inventory defect rate in the at least one computing device for the specified time period;

weighting, by the at least one computing device, the at least one inventory defect based on a weighting factor based at least in part upon;

a remediation cost associated with a type of the at least one inventory defect, a scarcity of the at least one product associated with the at least one inventory defect, duration of business relationship with the vendor, whether the vendor has promised to correct the at least one inventory defect, and whether the inventory defect rate associated with the vendor over a previous specified time period meets a specified threshold;

assigning, by the at least one computing device, at least one weighted value to the at least one inventory defect wherein calculating the inventory defect rate further comprises calculating a weighted rate from the at least one weighted value assigned to the at least one inventory defect;

imposing, by the at least one computing device, at least one remedial measure if the inventory defect rate meets the specified threshold of the inventory defect rate, wherein the inventory defect rate is associated with the vendor and the at least one remedial measure is imposed on the vendor, the at least one remedial measure comprising generating a warning message including information describing the at least one inventory defect, the information including at least one of an inventory defect type, a date, or a vendor identifier associated with the vendor;

imposing, by the at least one computing device, at least one additional remedial measure including lowering the specified threshold for a subsequent time period;

generating, by the at least one computing device, a corrective message, the corrective message instructing how the at least one inventory defect can be corrected; and

transmitting, by the at least one computing device, the warning message to the vendor and the corrective message to personnel in the materials handling facility.

2. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

retrieving, by at least one computing device, a defect history associated with a vendor and at least one product from an inbound shipment from a memory, the at least one product to be stocked in a materials handling facility, the defect history being associated with a specified time period;

extracting, by the at least one computing device, at least one inventory defect from the defect history in a computer system;

calculating, by the at least one computing device, an inventory defect rate in the computer system for the specified time period;

imposing, by the at least one computing device, at least one remedial measure when the inventory defect rate meets a specified threshold of the inventory defect rate, the inventory defect rate being associated with at least one of an individual in the materials handling facility or the vendor, the at least one remedial measure being imposed on at least one of the individual or the vendor, wherein the at least one remedial measure comprises reducing the specified time period for a subsequent calculation of the inventory defect rate;

generating, by the at least one computing device, a warning message including at least one of;

information describing the at least one inventory defect, the information including an inventory defect type, a date or a vendor identifier associated with the vendor;

generating, by the at least one computing device, a corrective message, the corrective message instructing how the at least one inventory defect can be corrected; and

transmitting, by the at least one computing device, the corrective message to personnel in the materials handling facility and the warning message to the vendor.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the at least one inventory defect comprises at least one of:

an inaccurate count of inventory in the inbound shipment and lost inventory from the inbound shipment.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising imposing, by the at least one computing device, additional remedial measures on the vendor if the vendor does not correct the at least one inventory defect.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the additional remedial measures further comprises at least one of:

ceasing acceptance at the materials handling facility of inbound shipments from the vendor, restricting quantity of products ordered from the vendor, or restricting inbound shipments from the vendor to a particular materials handling facility.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, further comprising:

weighting, by the at least one computing device, the at least one inventory defect based on a weighting factor;

assigning, by the at least one computing device, at least one weighted value to the at least one inventory defect; and

wherein calculating the inventory defect rate further comprises calculating, by the at least one computing device, a weighted rate from the at least one weighted value assigned to the at least one inventory defect.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, wherein the weighting factor is based on at least one of:

a remediation cost associated with a type of the at least one inventory defect, a scarcity of the at least one product associated with the at least one inventory defect, duration of business relationship with the vendor, whether the vendor has promised to correct the at least one inventory defect, or whether a first inventory defect rate associated with the vendor or a previous specified time period exceeds the specified threshold.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein imposing at least one remedial measure further comprises generating, by the at least one computing device, a message in the computer system instructing at least one of:

the materials handling facility to cease acceptance of future inbound shipments from the vendor, a procurement system to cease ordering of products from the vendor, or the procurement system to restrict quantity of products ordered from the vendor.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising interfacing, by the at least one computing device, with the procurement system to cause the procurement system to cease ordering of products from the vendor.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the at least one inventory defect is at least one of:

a missing barcode, a missing purchase order identifier associated with the inbound shipment, late arriving inventory, a quantity discrepancy between a first quantity of items in the inbound shipment and a second quantity expected to be present in the inbound shipment, at least one damaged product in the inbound shipment, or a user generated inventory defect data.

11. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one inventory defect comprises a missing universal product code label for the at least one product and imposing at least one remedial measure further comprises initiating creation of a replacement universal product code label.

12. A system, comprising:

at least one server;

logic executed on the at least one server that retrieves a defect history associated with a vendor and at least one product from an inbound shipment from a memory, the at least one product to be stocked in a materials handling facility, the defect history being associated with a specified time period;

logic executed on the at least one server that extracts at least one inventory defect from the defect history in a computer system and calculates an inventory defect rate in the computer system for the specified time period;

logic executed on the at least one server that imposes remedial measures if the inventory defect rate exceeds a specified threshold of the inventory defect rate, wherein the inventory defect rate is associated with the vendor and the remedial measures are imposed on the vendor, the remedial measures comprising reducing the specified time period for a subsequent calculation of the inventory defect rate;

logic that generates a warning message including at least one of;

information describing the at least one inventory defect, the information including an inventory defect type, a date or a vendor identifier associated with the vendor;

logic that generates a corrective message, the corrective message instructing how the at least one inventory defect can be corrected; and

logic that transmits the corrective message to personnel in the materials handling facility and the warning message to the vendor.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising logic executed on the at least one server that imposes additional remedial measures on a vendor if the vendor does not correct the at least one inventory defect.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the additional remedial measures further comprises at least one of:

ceasing acceptance at the materials handling facility of inbound shipments from the vendor, restricting quantity of products ordered from the vendor, or restricting inbound shipments from the vendor to a particular materials handling facility.

15. The system of claim 12, further comprising logic executed on the at least one server that lowers the specified threshold for a subsequent time period.

16. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

logic executed on the at least one server that weighs the at least one inventory defect based on a weighting factor;

logic executed on the at least one server that assigns at least one weighted value to the weighted at least one inventory defect; and

logic executed on the at least one server that calculates a weighted rate from the at least one weighted value assigned to the at least one inventory defect.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the weighting factor is based on at least one of:

a remediation cost associated with a type of the at least one inventory defect, a scarcity of the at least one product associated with the at least one inventory defect, duration of business relationship with the vendor, whether the vendor has promised to correct the at least one inventory defect, or whether a first inventory defect rate associated with the vendor and a previous specified time period exceeds the specified threshold.

18. The system of claim 12, further comprising logic executed on the at least one server that generates a message in the at least one server instructing at least one of the materials handling facility to cease acceptance of future inbound shipments from the vendor, a procurement system to cease ordering of products from the vendor, or the procurement system to restrict quantity of products ordered from the vendor.

19. The system of claim 18, further comprising logic executed on the at least one server that interfaces with the procurement system to cause the procurement system to cease ordering of products from the vendor.

20. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one inventory defect is at least one of:

a missing barcode, late arriving inventory, a missing purchase order identifier associated with the inbound shipment, a quantity discrepancy between a first quantity of items in the inbound shipment and a second quantity expected to be present in the inbound shipment, at least one damaged product in the inbound shipment, or a user generated inventory defect data.

21. The system of claim 12, wherein the at least one inventory defect comprises a missing universal product code label for the at least one product and the logic that imposes remedial measures further comprises logic that initiates generation of a replacement universal product code label.